A comparitive study on the effect of community facilities in urban low cost housing on the well-being of residents in Klang and Shah Alam, Malaysia

Housing in urban areas is blessed with available facilities for residents to choose from; may that be for education, grocery shopping, eating, recreation, praying, medical services and others. Residents can choose to go to any of these facilities for their needs and wants. There is however some variance in the choice of facilities in different housing areas yet the availability of facilities has to some degree an effect on the satisfaction of residents towards their housing environment. As Johnston (2000) defined in The Dictionary of Human Geography, `housing as a sustainable entity provides houses, infrastructure, amenities and social facilities that are important to the development of human growth such as education, health, economic and recreation’. This paper revolves around the findings of a research relating to the level of satisfaction of residents in low cost flats towards the availability and accessibility of facilities. There are a selection of five locations of low cost flats in Shah Alam and three locations in Klang. A combination of qualitative and quantitative methods was used to approach this study. Survey data were analysed through the SPSS program and also by the Grounded Theory Analysis. The findings will show that the factors of availability and accessibility of facilities plays an important role in the level of satisfaction of these residents. Findings will also show that that the respondents in Shah Alam are more satisfied compared to those in Klang towards the community facilities domain in their housing area. In general, it can be concluded that residents living in Shah Alam has a higher level of well-being than in Klang where community facilities domain is concerned

Impact of Night Commercial Activities towards Quality Of Life of Urban Residents

AbstractThe intensity of night commercial activities in Bangsar, Kuala Lumpur has affected the quality of life of the residents living in its vicinity. The findings have shown that night commercial activities such as pubs, bars, night clubs, night markets and restaurants had affected the quality of life of residents in the aspects of comfort, convenience and safety. This study has recommended buffer zones, re-conversion of land use from commercial to housing, using one way traffic system, and gated and guarded neighborhood. The Indicator Measurement Technique of QOL used for this impact study of night commercial may be able to be used for research of the same nature

Promoting sustainable urban neighborhood towards walkability / Diyanah Inani Azmi and Hafazah Abdul Karim.

Climate change is a widely accepted fact. Urbanization and industrialization are the main cause of the climate change phenomena all around the world. One of the main problems of urbanization is the increase in growing dependence on automobiles. The main modes of transportation even in the neighborhood area are the private cars because it is the norm of urbanites to use the motorized vehicles rather than to walk. This shows that the planning and design of the neighborhood itself can influence the walkability of the housing area. This paper highlights the implication of walkability towards promoting sustainable urban neighborhood

The influential image of nighttime urban public park in forming place identity /Mohd Riduan Ngesan, Hafazah Abdul Karim and Syed Sobri Zubir.

The design of urban public park is an important factor which influence urban community leisure. The objective of this study is to investigate the community perceptions on nighttime leisure activities in urban public park. The questionnaire survey is done in Padang (green field) located in the urban center of Shah Alam and Putrajaya using random stratifies technique. There are four types of variable studied related to nighttime leisure in an urban public park namely comforts, conveniences, safety and nighttime leisure. The findings from this study are expected to show a positive perception of nighttime leisure in urban public park towards urban community

Evaluating the Shah Alam City Council Policy and Guidelines on the Hierarchy of Neighborhood Open Space

AbstractThis paper is part of a research to evaluate the existing policy and guidelines on open space used by Shah Alam City Council. The adequacy and suitability of open space is crucial as open spaces are known to be included as social needs of residents in any neighborhood area. Observation survey on the hierarchy of open space was carried out. Expert interviews were conducted and found that the current policy and guidelines for Shah Alam is adequate yet needed to be reviewed for future needs according to different types of housing, different categories of users and changing trends

Well-being of UiTM Shah Alam students living in off-campus environment / Muhammad Hilmy Muslim, Hafazah Abdul Karim and Ishak Che Abdullah.

Abstract This paper introduces a method to apply the principles of New Urbanism on an Egyptian neighborhood unit. It extends to their relationship with the common dimensions of urban design. It proposes four objectives: a) Interpret the new concepts of New Urbanism, b) Cite principles of Urbanism and trends emanating from it, c) Discover the structure of the philosophical concept of urbanization and d) Design a matrix inventories the compatibility of the principles of New Urbanism and urban design dimensions. Finally, the matrix tests the combination of the principles and the dimensions in a traditional Egyptian urban fabric, Basilica Church Plaza

Comparing the Walking Behaviour between Urban and Rural Residents

AbstractWalking behavior can be considered as one of the important factors in measuring the walkability level in neighborhood. Walking behavior has close interrelationships with walkability. This paper is based on a comparative study of walking behaviour of residents between urban and rural neighborhood. The method used in this study is known as walking distance test and the data were analyzed using the comparative approach. The findings show that there are slight differences of walking speed, walking time and walking speed between residents in the urban and rural neighborhood area

Human Behaviour and Activities in Relation to Shah Alam Urban Park during Nighttime

AbstractPublic parks play a vital role in the social life of urban communities. The purpose of this paper is to show the social behaviour and activities of a community during nighttime in outdoor spaces exclusively in public urban park in Shah Alam. However, literature reviews regarding nighttime social behaviour and activities of urban community are limited. Improved understanding of relation between community activity and urban park setting could be used to influence the development of public park design, to create nighttime urban outdoor environments more conducive for community leisure activity